Edmund Burke: “Such gentlemen have since had more reason to repent of their want of foresight than I hope any of the same class will…”

They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.

Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?

We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.

The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.